They need you. They want you. But that doesn’t mean they’re ready to hire you. A lot of things can get in the way between “interested” and “take my money”. It’s up to you to convince them to take the next step. Or more accurately, to provide them with sufficient facts and emotional appeals to enable them to convince themself.  For starters, that requires understanding their problem and how it affects them. Where is their pain? What do they fear? What is their objective and, if they don’t achieve it, what it will cost them and how will they feel?  If they don’t know this, you ne ..read more

You don’t want to attract people who can’t afford to hire you. You also don’t want to attract clients who have gone through several attorneys before you and “can’t seem to find the right one”. But you also don’t want to attract prospective clients who are completely happy with their current firm and not looking for anyone else.  You want to attract your “ideal” clients, those with the right combination of needs and wants and temperament, who are looking for the help you provide and are willing and able to pay for it. You may occasionally work with a client who isn’t ideal, i.e., tol ..read more

Lawyers tend to write articles and documents and memos and cover letters and emails… that are too long. They seek completeness and accuracy and to persuade someone of something, but often wind up doing anything but. Their writing is often long-winded, repetitive, boring, and ultimately persuades no one.  Search engines favor longer articles. But to be effective, they have to be well written. If they are, in terms of sales, long copy usually pulls better than short copy. What can you do? Learn how to write long copy effectively or hire someone to do it for you. One takes time an ..read more

One of the best ways to market your legal services is to teach clients and prospects about the law. That’s what they want to know when they go to a search engine or click a link. They want to know how bad their problem or situation is, available solutions, the risks, and their options.  And if they are searching for a lawyer, they want to know why they should choose you. Educate them and they will be much more likely to choose you, because the information you share not only helps them decide to do something about their situation, it shows them you have the knowledge and experience they n ..read more

You’re in the risk mitigation business. You help your clients avoid or prevent risk and lessen the consequences when something goes wrong. The safer a client or prospect feels about the advice you provide them, the more likely they are to follow that advice.  The same is true for hiring you.  How can you reduce your clients’ (especially new clients’) perceived risks and, therefore, make it more likely that they will hire you? Submitted for your approval:  Free content. Articles, blog posts, presentations, books, reports, webinars, podcasts. Show them what you know, h ..read more

Sure, you can ask them. During a meeting or consultation or over coffee. You can also look at their website or blog, read their book, listen to their presentation or interviews, or send them a survey or questionnaire.  The problem is, people often don’t tell us what they really think or want.  Some don’t know what’s possible or have trouble articulating what they need Some tell you what they think makes them look intelligent, more successful, or a better person Some tell you what they think you want to hear  And some play everything close to the vest and don’t tell you mu ..read more

Okay, maybe you’re not the best lawyer in town. Other lawyers have better skills, more experience, a better track record, deeper pockets, more charisma, and better connections. They look better, smell better, and have a boatload of energy.  How can you possibly beat them? By working harder than they do? Maybe. But that gets old.  You beat them not by outworking them, but by out-marketing them.  That doesn’t mean your marketing has to be amazing. Just better. You do a few things well and do them more consistently and enthusiastically. It means knowing your market—what they ..read more

Or waited too long to say yes and got burned. Or hired a lawyer with less experience and lost the case. Or didn’t follow your advice and had to spend thousands more to have you fix it. Your words of warning or advice might go in one ear and out the other. So don’t just tell them, show them. Paint a picture in their mind, visually depicting what happened to other clients.  For example, if you have a client or prospect who says, “I need to think it over,” you might respond with something like this:  “I had a client say the same thing to me, but unfortunately, he didn’t ‘thin ..read more

For years, I’ve been saying that it only takes 15 minutes a day to market a law practice successfully. I’ve said that because if I said “one hour” you probably wouldn’t do it, and also, because it’s true.  15 minutes is all you need.  But do it “every day,” not just when you have some free time.  Make it a habit, a commitment. Put the time on your calendar as an appointment with yourself and don’t miss that appointment.  If you don’t schedule this time, you won’t do the work. Life will get in the way. Especially if you don’t like marketing and have to force yourself t ..read more

Jim Rohn said, “If you want to become more successful, study success.” How do you do that? By studying successful people. People who have accomplished what you want to accomplish. People who inspire you. People you would like to learn from and emulate.  Lawyers who have done what you want to do. Entrepreneurs. Business leaders. Great speakers and writers and philosophers.  You can find successful people in your city or on the Internet, in biographies and the pages of history, and even in fiction. Read their books. And books about them. Listen to their presentations and interviews. M ..read more